Research Projects
New drug discovery, gene regulation, chromatin remodeling
Project #1:
Setting up conditions for the screening of chemical libraries looking for compounds affecting molecular chaperone expression.
Recent scientific developments increasingly indicate that the molecular chaperone system is actively involved in cancerogenesis, neurodegeneration and cardiovascular disorders. The master regulator of molecular chaperone expression at the level of transcription is the heat shock factor (HSF). Development of drugs activating or repressing HSF is an important pharmacological goal. The objectives of our project include the creation of yeast strains that later will be utilized in high-throughput screens of chemical libraries for compounds affecting the HSF function. It will require engineering new gene reporter constructs and evaluating screening systems with known HSF - affecting compounds.
Project #2:
Investigation of mechanisms of chromatin remodeling at heat shock gene promoters.
Chromatin remodeling is a fundamental prerequisite to eukaryotic gene activation and understanding the mechanisms of chromatin changes is an important question of molecular biology. We will use yeast heat shock genes as a model system to study chromatin remodeling mechanisms. In our future study, we will investigate involvement of different enzymatic activities at yeast heat shock gene promoters and the reasons chromatin changes vary drastically even for closely related and co-regulated heat shock genes. More specifically, we will addressthe the following questions: are histone chaperones affect nucleosome translocation rates at heat shock gene promoters? What ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling complexes are involved in the regulation of the nucleosome translocation rate at HSP promoters?
Setting up conditions for the screening of chemical libraries looking for compounds affecting molecular chaperone expression.
Recent scientific developments increasingly indicate that the molecular chaperone system is actively involved in cancerogenesis, neurodegeneration and cardiovascular disorders. The master regulator of molecular chaperone expression at the level of transcription is the heat shock factor (HSF). Development of drugs activating or repressing HSF is an important pharmacological goal. The objectives of our project include the creation of yeast strains that later will be utilized in high-throughput screens of chemical libraries for compounds affecting the HSF function. It will require engineering new gene reporter constructs and evaluating screening systems with known HSF - affecting compounds.
Project #2:
Investigation of mechanisms of chromatin remodeling at heat shock gene promoters.
Chromatin remodeling is a fundamental prerequisite to eukaryotic gene activation and understanding the mechanisms of chromatin changes is an important question of molecular biology. We will use yeast heat shock genes as a model system to study chromatin remodeling mechanisms. In our future study, we will investigate involvement of different enzymatic activities at yeast heat shock gene promoters and the reasons chromatin changes vary drastically even for closely related and co-regulated heat shock genes. More specifically, we will addressthe the following questions: are histone chaperones affect nucleosome translocation rates at heat shock gene promoters? What ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling complexes are involved in the regulation of the nucleosome translocation rate at HSP promoters?